


History Has Its Eyes On You

by martianwahtney



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M, MIT Era, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pre-Relationship, Rhodey Is a Good Bro, Tony's actual age is not referenced in this fic, they're just friends bc Tony is underage I'm not that fucked up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-05
Updated: 2016-10-15
Packaged: 2018-08-13 06:23:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7965937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/martianwahtney/pseuds/martianwahtney
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>MIT era fic in which Tony and Rhodey meet, and become friends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Inimitable & Original

James Rhodes stared at the 12 year old in his engineering class (he didn’t quite remember what the class was called, but the name had been impressive), the child was running his god damn oversized mouth. The teacher, who was openly gaping at the kid, had been shamed silent by this kids (frankly stunning) knowledge of robotics. When the 10 year old was finished with his long winded rant, he smirked and plopped back down on his seat. James looked from the teacher to the kid, no one in the room spoke for a solid three minutes.  
  
“Thank you, Mr. Stark,” the professor’s voice was strained.  
  
“‘Course teach,” the boy responded with an air of effortless smugness that James thought he was too young to have.  
  
_Who the fuck does this kid think he is?_  
  
James wasn’t entirely aware of what happened after the Stark kid stopped speaking, it was hard to focus on anything when the professor’s knowledge of robotics had been shamed within the first ten minutes of class.  
  
He wasn’t too sure he was going to like having Tony Stark in his class.  
  
\--  
  
James noticed very quickly that the Stark kid never seemed to shut the fuck up. Especially in class, and _especially_ if the teacher was wrong. The kid always seemed to be cloaked in arrogance, but James had a distinct feeling that it was all a show. He was brash, and rude, and didn’t seem to have a brain to mouth filter. But James often saw the kid alone a lot, sometimes in the library with books that arguably weighed more than the kid did. Sometimes if a peal of laughter broke through the room before class start, the kid would look over with something sadly like longing on his young face. James almost felt bad but then the kid would mouth off to a Professor and throw the whole class off track.  
  
\--  
  
James wasn’t one to eavesdrop on people, but it was a little hard not to when Howard Stark was talking with Tony. And by talking, James meant, berating the kid. So maybe, maybe, Tony deserved a stern talking to, after all he set off a small explosion in the robotics lab, but he definitely did not deserve to be berated like that by his own father. Tony’s face was devoid of all emotions. James heard words like _selfish_ , _worthless_ , and _impossible to be around_. Tony didn’t react at all. James was going to walk away, he really shouldn’t be listening to that, when Howard stalked away from the boy, and a beautiful woman approached Tony. Almost immediately Tony relaxed and he smiled at the woman, James had a feeling she was Tony’s mom. Maria Stark didn’t seem upset with her son, in fact she smiled at him, and touched his shoulder gently. James turned, not wanting to intrude on anything, he headed toward the library.  
  
James had a hard time studying. He could still hear Howard’s words in his mind. He couldn’t help but wonder what kind of man Howard was to think such things about his own son.  
  
\--  
  
The kid was at the party. The very obviously underage Tony Stark was at a college party, and was very obviously drunk. He was surrounded by some older students. James didn’t really like the way they were looking at the kid, like he was some new toy for them to play around with and use.  
  
Sure Tony was a loud mouth bother most of the time, but that didn’t mean James could just stand by and let bad things happen to the kid.  
  
\--  
  
James looked at the infant latched to his side. Tony’s arms were wrapped around him, his mouth half open, and a soft snore escaping him every once and a while. The kid was at least 5 years younger than James was, definitely not old enough to be able to handle that much alcohol.  
  
In any other situation, James would have shoved the person off, but something was stopping him. Inexplicably he thought of how Tony leaned into his mother’s touch that one day. James realized the kid just might be a little touch-starved, and James couldn't find it in his heart to deny the kid something as simple as that.  
  
James draped his arm over his eyes and somehow managed to fall asleep with the kid next to him. He was acutely aware that it felt like he was sleeping next to a small furnace.  
  
Tony was half on top of him when James woke. He shoved the kid off and Tony woke with a start. He sat up quickly, his head fell to his hands and he groaned. He flopped back on the mattress and rubbed at his temples. James just remained silent, the kid was probably hungover and he didn’t want to make anything worse.  
  
“You know if you wanted to cuddle this bad you didn’t have to get me drunk, peaches,”  
  
_Jesus Christ_.  
  
“Next time I’ll let you get alcohol poisoning,”  
  
“Come now platypus, don’t be rude,”  
  
“What did you just call me?”  
  
“Rhodey, buttercup, sour patch-”  
  
“I’m not sour,” James told him.  
  
Tony threw him a thousand watt grin. James had a strange feeling that Tony wasn’t just smiling because of the ridiculous nicknames he’d just saddled James with. Tony hoisted himself off the bed and stood, he stretched out and ran his fingers through his already messy hair.  
  
“God I have the worst headache, hey pumpkin do you have any coffee? Because I could really go for some…”  
  
Tony walked out of the room, still chattering about coffee, god the kid never seemed to stop talking. James slowly pushed himself out of bed, he could hear Tony clanking around in his kitchen, it did not sound like the kid was making coffee. He slowly shuffled out of his room and into the kitchen. Tony was sitting on the floor of the kitchen, what was left of the coffee maker piled around him.  
  
“What the fuck,”  
  
“Give me 20 minutes sour patch, it’ll be good as new- better actually,”  
  
“I’m not sour,” James insisted.  
  
Tony merely glanced at him from his place on the kitchen floor. James dropped his head for a moment before he straightened.  
  
“I’m going to get coffee,” his voice sounded strained even to his own ears.  
  
“Hurry back lollypop,”  
  
\--  
  
By the time James got back to his apartment he found that the coffee maker was still in pieces on the floor, and Tony was nowhere to be found. Upon further inspection of the mess, James found a note.  
  
_‘Went to grab supplies from my lab, be back soon peaches xx’_  
  
“He’s going to blow up my apartment,” James whispered to himself.  
  
\--  
  
James left for class before Tony returned with whatever supplies he needed. James wasn’t entirely sure the kid would come back at all, he might just leave the damn coffee maker like that, in pieces and on the floor. After a long day of pointless lectures, and a vague sense of worry about the coffee maker and his apartment, James finally headed home.  
  
When he first stepped into the kitchen, his first thought was that he was in the wrong apartment. The smaller appliances, the coffee maker, the microwave, and even the damn toaster looked shiny, they looked new and expensive. James dropped his backpack and walked out of the apartment to check the number on the door. The gold number read 21, definitely James’s apartment. He shut the door firmly, locked it, and headed to the engineering lab.  
  
Tony was staring at a computer muttering to himself. His fingers flying over the keyboard. To James, it looked like the kid was writing some kind of code.  
  
“Hey,”  
  
“Was the prof mad I wasn’t there?” Tony had yet to take his eyes off the screen.  
  
“He seemed pretty relieved, actually. What exactly did you do to my kitchen?” James inquired.  
  
“They were in dire need of an upgrade,” Tony replied offhandedly.  
  
There was something in his tone that made James rethink everything he wanted to say. For some reason Howard Stark’s words about his son echoed in his mind. _Worthless. Selfish. Impossible to be around._  
  
At James’s silence, Tony slowly stopped typing. He pushed away from the desk and swiveled around in his chair to face James. His young face troubled, but he also looked like he was trying to mask the expression.  
  
“They not working out right?” Tony questioned.  
  
“What?”  
  
“The upgrades,”  
  
“Oh! No, they’re great Tones, but why?” the nickname just slipped off his tongue.  
  
Tony relaxed slightly. A small smile flickered across his face.  
  
“Well that’s why you brought me ‘round your place right?” he questioned.  
  
“What?” James demanded.  
  
“To have me fix stuff, everyone does it,” the kid gave a half-hearted shrug. James took a seat on a workbench across from Tony, his eyes narrowed, a frown etched on his face.  
  
“I took you to my place because you were drunk off your ass and I didn’t want you to do anything idiotic,” he replied.  
  
Tony stared at him for a moment, a crease appeared between his eyebrows, but he didn’t say anything.  
  
“Not everyone is using you, Tones,”  
  
The kid scoffed and turned his head. His jaw set and squared. For that moment he looked so much older than his actual age. Then he looked back at James, and smiled. It was fake, and sharp, but cleverly put together so it almost looked genuine.  
  
“So what brings you down here then, honey bear?”  
  
\--  
  
James waved at his friends as they walked off, they had class- or a study session, either way he was glad they were leaving as James just wanted to get back to his apartment and sleep for the next 4 hours until he had another class.  
  
“So people actually call you ‘Jim’?” James turned to see Tony.  
  
The kid was in a black peacoat and a scarf- ok well looks like Tony was one of those guys who could pull off the whole scarf thing.  
  
“That’s a common derivative of my name,” James agreed as he continued on in the direction of his apartment building. Tony fell into step next to him.  
  
“But peaches! It’s so boring!”  
  
“It’s a name, Tony, are they supposed to be exciting?”  
  
“More exciting than Jim,”  
  
“Well not everyone is going to call me peaches, or plum sauce, or honey bear like you do, Tones,” Rhodes replied.  
  
“Plum sauce?” Tony’s eyebrows shot up toward his hairline.  
  
“That’s a good one butter cup, can’t believe I haven’t thought of that one yet,” Tony beamed up at James.  
  
“Christ,” but James was smiling as well.  
  
The two turned the corner and James’s apartment building came into view.  
  
“So what would you have them call me?”  
  
“Rhodes, or Rhodey,” Tony replied easily. He adjusted the strap of his bag on his shoulder as they reached the building.  
  
“That’s it?”  
  
“Yep,”  
  
“That’s just like people calling _you_ Stark,”  
  
“People already call me Stark,” Tony replied offhandedly.  
  
The two climbed the stairs up to Rhodey’s apartment. They reached the door by the time that Rhodes realized that he most definitely did not invite Tony up to his apartment. But Rhodes pushed the door open anyway and the two of them walked in.  
  
“I hope you know I’m planning on going to bed,”  
  
“Oh! Peaches is that an offer?” there was a shit eating grin on the kid’s face.  
  
“Ok you’re like 12, calm down,” Tony looked like Rhodes had just killed a man. Though Rhodes had a feeling if he actually killed a man, Tony would definitely help him hide the body.  
  
“12,” the genius scoffed.  
  
“Look, Tones, I’m going to bed. Make yourself at home,”  
  
There was an odd look on Tony’s face, but Rhodes was too tired to try and decipher it.  
  
\--  
  
Rhodes walked out of his room three hours and fifteen minutes after he’d walked in to take his nap. He saw Tony sitting on the couch surrounded by papers and textbooks. Rhodes took a few steps toward the couch and started shuffling through the loose sheets of paper. They were schematics of different tech toys.  
  
“Tones, what are these?”  
  
“Things just pop into my head, I jot them down before I lose them. I might send them into the R &D department,”  
  
Right, Tony’s father ran Stark Industries, a major weapons dealer for the military.  
  
“They don’t look like-” but Rhodes stopped talking before he could finish that particular sentence. But Tony seemed to realize what Rhodey was going to say.  
  
“I’m not Howard, I don’t want to make weapons,” the kid said stiffly.  
  
Rhodes immediately knew he hit a sore spot. Not that he blamed the kid after how he heard the terms Howard used to describe his son.  
  
“So what do you want to do then?” Rhodes questioned.  
  
“What?”  
  
“If you don’t want to make weapons, then what do you want to do?”  
  
Tony looked stunned, like nobody had ever asked him that question before. He gestured sort of helplessly to the loose papers scattered around him.  
  
“I wanna do this,” he admitted quietly.  
  
“I want to build something that’s going to outlive me, and I don’t want it to be weapons or death,”  
  
“Good,” Rhodes said at last.  
  
\--  
  
Rhodes stopped short as he walked out of his apartment. He’d just left Tony to his devices. Alone. In his apartment. Like it was a natural, everyday thing. Rhodey had been talking with Tony for maybe a week now, and already the kid had inserted himself in Rhodes life. Like he belonged there, like he’d always been there. At that moment Rhodes was very glad he looked out for Tony at that party.  
  
\--  
  
“Hey look, back the fuck off,” Rhodes pushed in front of the man who was being a punk ass to Tony.  
  
So maybe Tony deserved it. Just a little. But still Rhodes wasn’t going to let anyone talk to Tony like that.  
  
“Fuck that! He just ruined my project!”  
  
Tony probably shouldn’t have babbled on for ten minutes about how this guy’s final project would never work because his equations were “idiotic” and “looked like a five year old wrote them”.  
  
“Then maybe you should have thought your project out a little more,” Rhodes replied.  
  
Before the guy, who was much bigger than Rhodes, could do anything, the Professor walked back into the room only to dismiss the class because something had come up. Rhodes was quick to pack up his things. Tony was quick to follow.  
  
“You didn’t have to do that,” Tony stated.  
  
“You’re my friend, Tones, I wasn’t going to let him talk to you like that!”  
  
Tony looked stunned, like Rhodey’s words had just knocked the wind right out of him. The expression on Tony’s face shifted before it went carefully blank.  
  
“What’s with the look?”  
  
“I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop, peaches, no one is my friend without wanting something in return,”  
  
Rhodey stopped dead. He grabbed Tony by his arms to look him dead in the eyes.  
  
“Hey, you’re stuck with me, kid. I don’t want your damn money, I don’t care about the people you know- that’s not even what friendship is anyway,”  
  
Tony studied the expression on Rhodey’s face for a few seconds before a massive smile spread across his face.


	2. Can We Confer, Sir?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Christmas with Tony, "date night", some cameos by some people, and smoothies of questionable content.

“Honey bear, what the fuck is this?”  
  
Rhodes peeked his head into the kitchen see what Tony was talking about. The kid was standing in front of the counter, staring at the ramen that Rhodey picked up from the store.  
  
“It’s ramen, Tones,” Rhodey replied as he ducked back into his room. He yanked on his MIT sweater, he was only mildly surprised that Tony hadn’t taken it yet. He stepped into the kitchen to find Tony staring at the package of ramen with a horrified expression on his face.  
  
“Ok Tony just because you eat caviar on the daily with silver spoons-”  
  
“That’s ridiculous peaches! You eat caviar with a spoon made out of bone!”  
  
Rhodey rolled his eyes heavily, but Tony didn’t seem deterred.  
  
“This can’t be healthy for you, and what’s that shit you’re always giving me about eating healthy?”  
  
“Not all of us can be millionaires,” Rhodey reminded him.  
  
Tony set the package of ramen back down on the counter and turned to face Rhodey.  
  
“Give me half an hour, and don’t eat… that,” Tony spoke as if the ramen was no better than the dirt on his shoe.  
  
“Tony?”  
  
But Tony was already on his way out of Rhodey’s apartment.  
  
–  
  
“Alright butternut squash, you ready?”  
  
“What did you just call me?” Rhodey asked. He yanked on one of his shoe’s and looked up at his friend. Tony had a massive smile on his face.  
  
“Just roll with it,” he replied with a carefree shrug.  
  
Rhodey stood up and patted at his pockets to make sure he had the keys to his apartment and his wallet. He followed Tony out of his apartment and down to the street where there was a car waiting for them.  
  
“Tones… what have you done?” Rhodey heard the wariness in his own voice.  
  
“We’re just going for a bite to eat pumpkin,” Tony said.  
  
Rhodey climbed into the backseat next to Tony and shut the car door. Tony chattered about the different projects he was working on as they drove to wherever Tony was planning on taking them for food. It was sometimes astonishing to Rhodey that Tony never seemed to run out of things to say. He talked with an obscene amount of hand gestures, his dark eyes always alight with excitement (or maybe too much caffeine, maybe both). He was easily the most interesting person Rhodey had ever met.  
  
The car slid to a stop. Rhodey got out of the car only to find that Tony had taken them to one of the more upscale restaurants in town.  
  
“You couldn’t have told me to change?” Rhodes demanded in a dry voice.  
  
“You’re fine, peaches,”  
  
Rhodes followed Tony into the restaurant. It was oddly quiet in the front room. No one was waiting for a table. Rhodey assumed that he and Tony had arrived before the kitchen was even open, but it was nearing seven in the evening, nearly all restaurants were open at that time. It wasn’t till they were led to their table when he realized what was so wrong about the whole thing. There wasn’t another patron in the restaurant.  
  
“Tony why are we the only people here?”  
  
“I bought the place out,”  
  
“Jesus shit,”  
  
“Isn’t that a little much?” Rhodey demanded.  
  
“Honestly platypus, looking at that ramen package made me sad. I wasn’t going to let you eat that when there are so many better things to eat- you really have to try the New York steak, you’ll love it,”  
  
Rhodey took a look at the prices and nearly choked.  
  
“Tony I can’t afford this!”  
  
“You think I’m going to let you pay? That’s cute honey bunch,” Tony replied with a small scoff.  
  
“I can’t let you do this,”  
  
“I have like a gazillion dollars, and let’s not fight on date night, alright plum sauce?”  
  
Plum sauce, jesus.  
  
“You’re like 12, Tony,”  
  
“12,” the kid scoffed.  
  
–  
  
Being Tony Stark’s friend was, in Rhodey’s opinion, downright amazing. Sure, the kid was volatile and lacked a brain to mouth filter and somehow managed to pull the stupidest shit when he was drunk or on an engineering binge.  
  
The gifts however, those were something Rhodey could do without. Tony obviously didn’t know how to show affection unless it was through buying expensive gifts. Within three months of befriending the boy genius, Rhodey found his apartment got completely refurbished, he had a closet full of new clothes, and at least 3 suits that he didn’t know what to do with.  
  
Sometimes the gifts became too much, on one notable occasion, Tony almost bought him an island. Rhodey finally has to tell Tony to knock it the fuck off with the gifts. It has been their first big argument. And what broke Rhodey’s heart was when he went to visit Tony just hours after the fight, and the kid looked like he hadn’t been expecting Rhodey to come back at all.  
  
–  
  
“You can always stay with me sour patch,” Tony said.  
  
“I’m not sour,” Rhodey insisted.  
  
Tony grinned and swiveled in his chair to face Rhodey.  
  
“That wasn’t a no,”  
  
Rhodey hesitated for a moment. Christmas at Stark Mansion sounded… interesting. His parents were going to be on the other side of the country visiting Jeanette, and Rhodey really couldn’t afford a ticket out there. He had planned to just stay in his apartment, but now he’d been invited to Tony’s place.  
  
“C’mon buttercup it’ll be fun!”  
  
“Alright, alright! I’ll go!”  
  
Tony beamed at him.  
  
–  
  
Rhodey wasn’t entirely sure what he expected with he got to Stark Mansion, but an empty house certainly wasn’t it. Howard and Maria weren’t there, according to Tony, they had “fucked the fuck off to Europe or some shit”.  
  
The outside of the Mansion itself made Rhodes want to flee. He already felt way out of his league. The massive doors to the Mansion were swung open before Rhodes or Tony had even reached it. There was a tall man in an impeccable suit.  
  
“J! My man! Long time!” Tony offered out his fist to which the man responded with a fist bump. Tony beamed and turned to Rhodes.  
  
“Rhodey this is Jarvis,”  
  
No, actually, Rhodes wasn’t intimidated in the slightest to be around Jarvis, the man that practically raised Tony. He just really wanted Jarvis to like him. For completely selfish reasons of course, Rhodes just liked to be liked, it definitely wasn’t because Jarvis was the most important person to Tony.  
  
“Sir,” Jarvis greeted with a small bow.  
  
“That’s unnecessary,” Rhodey said without thinking.  
  
Jarvis smiled softly, but didn’t amend his words.  
  
“If I may show you to the guest room, sir?” Jarvis offered to Rhodey.  
  
“Yea, ok,” and Rhodey felt really out of place inside the impressive Stark Mansion.  
  
Rhodey’s guest room was bigger than his apartment back at school. There were a lot of blue’s and silver’s and the paintings that hung on the wall no doubt were worth more than Rhodey’s entire apartment complex.  
  
“Will this room do, sir?”  
  
Tony really wasn’t kidding when he said that Jarvis was kind of a little shit.  
  
“Yea, thanks J,” Rhodey said quietly.  
  
Jarvis walked out of the room and disappeared down the hallway. It took maybe thirty seconds for Tony to burst into the guest room.  
  
“Alright look sugar plum, we only have ten days off of vacation and we’re starting right now,” he held up an ancient looking gaming system.  
  
“Let’s go,”  
  
–  
  
Rhodes let himself be completely free during the break. He and Tony acted like idiots. They got drunk. They played video games. They even played hide and seek once, but the game lasted for 3 hours and Rhodes had all but given up on finding Tony.  
  
With Jarvis’s help they set up the biggest living room for Christmas. There was an oversized tree that was haphazardly decorated by two drunk college students, Jarvis had overseen them and placed the star on the top because he may let a number of things slide but he was not letting two drunk ass idiots get on a chair or a ladder where they could easily fall and break themselves.  
  
–  
  
When Christmas Day came, Rhodes talked to his parents for an hour, they were visiting his sister Jeanette in California. When he was finished with his phone call he headed back to the kitchen where Jarvis and Tony were.  
  
“You good, gumdrop?” Tony questioned  
  
“Yea,”  
  
“Great! So J’s making some breakfast, and I think he’s going to force us to spend all day watching Christmas movies,” but Tony didn’t sound too upset with the plans, and Rhodey thought they sounded pretty nice.  
  
From somewhere in the house, a phone rang.  
  
“Excuse me, sir,” Jarvis walked out of the room. Tony swiveled around on the bar stool he was sitting at to look at Rhodes.  
  
“Are your parents upset you’re not there?”  
  
“A little, but they understand,” Rhodey shrugged gently.  
  
“Are you going to call yours?” Rhodey was uncertain about the question.  
  
“Nah, mom’ll call at noon, I think,”  
  
Jarvis walked back into the room with a slight smile on his face. Tony swiveled back around to face the butler.  
  
“Director Peggy will be stopping by, sir,”  
  
“Holy shit,” Tony sounded stunned.  
  
“Aunt Peggy’s coming? How long is she gonna stay?”  
  
“She informed me that she’ll be here all day,”  
  
Tony whooped, like honest to god whooped. Rhodes would have been mildly embarrassed except he was too damn curious to know who Peggy was and what she was the Director of.  
  
“Platypus, you are going to love Aunt Peggy,”  
  
“Who is Aunt Peggy?” Rhodes asked.  
  
“You know SHIELD?”  
  
“Yes?” was that some sort of trick question, everybody and their mother knew about SHIELD.  
  
“Aunt Peggy helped found it, she’s currently the Director,”  
  
Did Tony know anyone who wasn’t the head of some kind of department? At Rhodey’s expression, Tony’s grin widened.  
  
–  
  
Peggy Carter was a force to behold. As the Director of SHIELD, Rhodey expected her to be very businesslike, like Howard, but he was dead wrong. She was full of life, gossiped with Jarvis and was completely invested in everything Tony did.  
  
“Jarvis making you watch Christmas movies again?” she questioned with a teasing note in her voice.  
  
“Just like the past hundred years,”  
  
Rhodey rolled his eyes at Tony’s dramatic response, it was nothing less than he expected from arguably the world’s most dramatic person.  
  
“We could always do something else, young sir,” Jarvis offered.  
  
Tony looked like a deer caught in the headlights for only half a second before he slumped against the couch with feign nonchalance.  
  
“Why mess with tradition, right J?”  
  
Tradition ended up being the four of them being squished together on the couch, watching Christmas movie after Christmas movie. Tony, who was notorious for talking through everything, was quiet.  
  
–  
  
Rhodes slunk into the kitchen at the ass crack of dawn. He intended to make himself a mug of coffee, instead he stopped in his tracks when he saw Peggy Carter.  
  
“Good morning,” she said.  
  
“Morning,” he replied.  
  
“Tony’s told me all about you,”  
  
“Has he?” Rhodey asked as he made his way to the coffee maker. If they were going to have a talk about him being Tony’s friend he was going to need coffee.  
  
“Tony’s told me about a lot of friends, usually he brings them up once or twice and then I never hear about them again. But you, Mr. Rhodes, you always seem to come back,”  
  
“He’s my best friend,” Rhodey said.  
  
“Tony called me twice after you two had it out over the island he tried to buy you. Once to tell me that he’d fucked up and was completely convinced he lost you as his friend. The second to tell me that you came back. I don’t think I need to tell you how much that meant,”  
  
“No ma’am,”  
  
Peggy crossed the room to him and placed her hand on his shoulder and gave it a small squeeze.  
  
“You can call me Peggy,” then she walked out of the kitchen, leaving Rhodey alone with his thoughts.  
  
In that moment he hated every single person who walked out on Tony’s friendship.  
  
–  
  
“You know I hate the Holiday’s,” Tony said quietly.  
  
“Yea?”  
  
“Usually it’s just me ‘n J, and he’s great and all. He pretty much raised me. But I mean it’s nice having someone around. I’m sure you’d rather be out in California with your family- honestly I’m sure it’s more exciting than hanging around with a teenager all the damn time but-”  
  
“Tony!”  
  
“I told you dumbass, I like spending time with you,”  
  
“Right,” Tony grinned brilliantly at him.  
  
–  
  
Rhodes peered into the darkened robotics lab. He hadn’t seen Tony in a few days, and while that was completely normal, he still wanted to check up on the kid and maybe force him to get a little bit of sleep.  
  
The lab was messy as always, and Rhodes had to skirt around more than one questionable looking device before he finally reached Tony.  
  
The young genius was working on arguably the weirdest robot that Rhodes had ever seen. It had only one arm with a three fingered claw at the end.  
  
“What the fuck is this?” Rhodes questioned.  
  
Tony peeked out from behind the robot, deep bags under his red tinged eyes told Rhodes that he’d gone at least 72 hours without sleep.  
  
“This is Dum-E,”  
  
The bot chirped and twisted it’s claw around in Rhodey’s direction.  
  
“A low functioning AI- and I mean low, he has a certain enthusiasm for smoothies of questionable content,” Tony added.  
  
“You made this in three days?”  
  
“I was on an alcohol induced engineering binge,” Tony replied casually.  
  
“Jesus Tones,” Rhodes said quietly.  
  
“I like him,”  
  
The bot chirped again, this time vaguely happy sounding and tried to turn towards Tony.  
  
“Ah! I told you to stay still! I can’t fix you if you keep moving I swear I’m going to ship you off to a community college and let them have to worry about you,” Tony muttered, a fond smile on his face.  
  
Rhodes just smiled and watched the scene in front of him. Tony treated Dum-E like a toddler, it was, quite frankly, adorable. On the table next to Tony there was a glass filled with some kind of greenish liquid. Rhodey leaned closer to get a better look.  
  
“Smoothie of questionable content,”  
  
“Where did he get the stuff to make this?” Rhodey demanded.  
  
“Fuck if I know,”


	3. That Would Be Enough

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> where Rhodey doesn't like Howard, Tony spends Christmas with the Rhodes' family, Rhodey graduates, and Tony spends the some of the summer with the Rhodes' family.

The first time Rhodey had to pull him from a drinking binge was right after a surprise visit from Howard Stark. Rhodey, who didn’t like the man to begin with, downright hated him when Tony told him the things Howard said to him, and his blood began to boil when he saw the bruises on Tony’s arms. Rhodey was ready to report the abuse the minute he saw the dark blue marks on his best friends skin, but Tony begged him off it. Claiming that it was all his fault anyway, he always strove to piss Howard off.  
  
So Rhodey made it his own personal mission right there to make sure Tony knew how much he appreciated him. But it was a little harder than he originally thought to get his point across to Tony. The kid usually just brushed off whatever nice thing Rhodes had to say and made some self-depreciative comment about himself that made Rhodey kind of want to slap him upside the head, because really, how could Tony not see what a good person he was?  
  
–  
  
“Peaches, don’t we have a long weekend coming up?”  
  
“I think so,” Rhodes replied, not looking up from his text book.  
  
“Wanna go to Italy?”  
  
Rhodey blinked and looked up at his best friend, Tony was lounging on his bed, wearing his MIT sweater.  
  
“All expenses paid,” Tony egged, his dark eyes alight with mischief.  
  
“Tones-” Rhodey started.  
  
“I knew you were going to say no, that’s why it’s already arranged! We leave Thursday after your night class,” Tony told him.  
  
Rhodey closed his eyes for a bit longer than a standard blink before nodding his head.  
  
“Fine, fine, I’ll go along with this, but let the record state I wanted to stay home to study,”  
  
Tony beamed at him.  
  
–  
  
Italy was amazing, even if they were there for only four days. Rhodey couldn’t think of a better way to tour Rome than with Tony Stark. Tony knew fluent Italian, thanks to Maria, he knew all the best places to eat (and drink), and entertained Rhodey with a million and one stories of spending summers in his family’s villa when he was younger.  
  
–  
  
“Thank you, Tones, this was fun,” Rhodey stated, they were on the Stark’s private jet, on their way home back to Cambridge.  
  
“It was nothing honey bear,” Tony replied with a shrug.  
  
Rhodey shook his head and looked out the window for a moment.  
  
“Still, it was a lot of fun,” Rhodey said at last.  
  
“Anything for you, plum sauce,”  
  
–  
  
“You should invited that friend of yours, Jim,” his mother said over the phone.  
  
“Tony?” Rhodes asked.  
  
“I think it’s high time we met this child, ‘specially since he took you to Italy,” she said.  
  
“Jesus- ma, that’s just how Tony shows affection. I told you about that time he tried to buy me an island,” Rhodey replied with a small smile.  
  
“Still, bring him by, Jeanie’s coming home too, she’ll want to meet him,”  
  
“I’ll ask, alright?”  
  
–  
  
“Hey Tones?”  
  
“What’s up butterscotch?”  
  
“You wanna spend Christmas with me and my family?”  
  
Tony looked at him for a long moment, trying to see if he was joking or not. When he didn’t see a trace of joking in Rhodey’s features, he slowly nodded his head.  
  
“Ok,” he said cautiously.  
  
“But you know I’m not good with people,” Tony added.  
  
“Tony, you’re amazing. They’re going to love you,” Rhodey insisted.  
  
Tony didn’t look too convinced.  
  
–  
  
“C’mon Tones, they’re going to love you,”  
  
“Plum sauce I am volatile, and a complete mess-”  
  
“Do we need to have another one of those talks?”  
  
Tony looked mildly horrified at the prospect. Rhodey grinned at him and pushed him toward the front door. Tony refused to move.  
  
“Y’know peaches I really shouldn’t leave Jarvis alone during the holiday’s,”  
  
“Jarvis is in England with Peggy,”  
  
“How the hell-?”  
  
“Because I told him I was taking your punk ass to my families place for Christmas and that he should do whatever he wants to do,” Rhodey replied.  
  
Before either of them could approached the door, it was flung open by a young woman with a mess of curls.  
  
“Brother!”  
  
She was in Rhodey’s arms before he could breath. Rhodes let her go and turned to introduce her to Tony.  
  
“Jeanette, this is Tony,”  
  
Jeanette, right, Rhodey’s little sister.  
  
“Hi,” Tony’s voice was quiet.  
  
“Jim’s told me so much about you!”  
  
Jim- god- and then Jeanette was hugging him too, like they were good friends. Tony was slow to return the hug. She broke the hug and yanked Tony towards the house. He shot a helpless look to Rhodes, who only laughed at him.  
  
By the time Rhodes walked into his parents house, not even a minute after Tony and Jeanette did, he found that his mother was already dotting on the kid and force-feeding him some sweets. Tony looked vaguely panicked but Rhodes figured this kind of maternal adoration would be good for him. Rhodey hauled his bag, and Tony’s, up to his room. His parents had generously scrounged up an extra mattress for Tony.  
  
Rhodey walked back to the kitchen to see that Tony was still being force fed some sort of sweet.  
  
“Ma,”  
  
“I think you’re scaring him,”  
  
“Nonsense! He’s all skin and bones, Jimmy,” Roberta replied with a small smile. Tony craned his neck to look at Rhodes.  
  
“Jimmy,” the kid mouthed.  
  
“Buttercup you never told me your mom makes the best whoopie pies in the state,” Tony stated before he stuffed a whoopie pie into his mouth. Rhodey momentarily cursed Tony’s ability to so charming, no one was going to let him swing by without Tony again.  
  
“Buttercup?” Jeanette questioned.  
  
“Where’s dad?”  
  
“At the store, he should be back soon,” Roberta replied.  
  
“Young man if you keep eating those you won’t be hungry for dinner,” Roberta warned as Tony reached for another sweet. For a second the kid had the decency to look abashed.  
  
“Yes, mama Rhodes,”  
  
Christ.  
  
“So, how has MIT been?”  
  
Rhodes told his mother about how the semester had been, how he had aced all his classes (Tony snorted), and, of course, how he was still on track to graduate in the Spring. Once he was finished, Tony launched into how his semester had been. Tony finished the semester with a 4.12, which was higher than Rhodey’s GPA, and he was attempting to graduate within the next few years.  
  
“Hello, hello!”  
  
Tony’s jaw snapped shut with an audible click as Terrance Rhodes walked into the kitchen with a few bags of groceries.  
  
Rhodey pushed off the counter to hug his father. Terrance hugged him tightly before letting him go.  
  
“Your mother tells me you brought a friend home,”  
  
“Yea, dad this is Tony, Tones this is Terrance,” Rhodes introduced.  
  
“Good to meet you, son,” Terrance said as he shook Tony’s outstretched hand. Rhodes couldn’t deny that there wasn’t a wary gleam in his best friends eyes.  
  
“You too, sir,”  
  
The ‘sir’ was an automatic reflex Tony had picked up after living so long with Howard. Terrence looked curiously at Tony but didn’t comment on the ‘sir’ thing. While Terrence was talking with Roberta and Jeanette, Rhodes led Tony through a tour of the house. Tony was oddly quiet, Rhodey decided against questioning it.  
  
“Nice room gumdrop, should have known you had a thing for model planes,” Tony remarked casually as he walked around the room.  
  
“Hey, those planes are cool,” Rhodes replied.  
  
Tony stopped at his suitcase and nudged the top open with his foot.  
  
–  
  
Tony really seemed to enjoy the break. At first Rhodey could tell that the kid felt like an outsider, stepping in on their holiday. But after a few movie nights with hot chocolate and a lot of laughter, Rhodey could see his best friend relax and act more like himself.  
  
When Christmas day rolled around, Rhodey was expecting outlandish gifts from Tony, but instead the gifts weren’t as grand as Tony would usually give, (perhaps because Rhodey warned him at least a dozen times to not give anyone anything to flashy a present). To mama Rhodes, he gave a diamond necklace, to Jeanette he gave earrings, and to Terrance Rhodes, he gave some nice, new, very soft sweaters (Tony noted that the man was fond of sweaters and strove to get him the best).  
  
–  
  
Then, before either of them knew it, it was time to return to MIT. It was Rhodey’s last semester at the school, he was going to graduate in the spring. A notion that slightly scared both him and Tony. Rhodey, because it meant he was leaving school and going out to the real world, with a real job. Tony, because it meant his best friend was going to be halfway around the world, fighting in wars, and Tony couldn’t be there to try and protect him.  
  
–  
  
“Silver or gold?”  
  
Rhodes blearily looked over at his best friend, for as much as they drank last night, Tony was handling his hangover too well. Rhodey hated him just a little bit for it.  
  
“What?” he gripped at his head and tried to ignore the sharp headache pounding in his head. He was never drinking again.  
  
Tony slid a mug of coffee and three pills of advil across the coffee table. Rhodes downed all three tablets in one go and prayed they would kick in as soon as possible.  
  
“For when we get married- peaches I drank more than you did and you’re telling me you remember none of this?”  
  
“Married?” Rhodes questioned, ignoring the jibe at his drinking ability.  
  
“When we’re 40, and if we’re single,”  
  
Tony said it like it explained everything. Rhodes sat back against the couch, Tony’s had stupider ideas that Rhodes agreed to.  
  
“You mostly agreed for the tax benefits,” Tony informed him, nursing his coffee close to his chest.  
  
“Tones, you’re a millionaire,” Rhodey said.  
  
“Ah, sorry peaches, there will be no joint bank accounts when we’re married. There’s a metric shit ton of red tape, and when we get divorced-”  
  
“What do you mean when?”  
  
“Peaches you’re gonna stay married to me? I’m a mess!” Tony said.  
  
“Look, Tones, if we promised we’d marry each other when we’re forty then we’re gonna fucking do it. Divorce is for quitters,” Rhodes promised.  
  
And Tony beamed at that.  
  
–  
  
That evening Tony made his way to the commencement ceremony to watch Rhodes graduate. He met up with the Rhodes family and they all sat together in the bleachers. Tony brought along a giant banner that read “congrats honey bear” on it.  
  
After the ceremony was over, and after Rhodes got his diploma, and all the families stormed the field to congratulate the graduates, Rhodey made Tony promise to stay with him and his family for at least a little bit over the summer.  
  
–  
  
It started off as small things that Roberta noticed, large bills in odd places, like in the cookie jar, or under a few couch cushions. She knew the moment she saw the first bill that it was all Tony’s doing. She just didn’t know how to confront him about it.  
  
When she failed to confront him about the money he was leaving all over the place, more things started to pop up. When their 20 year old refrigerator finally died, there was a brand new one waiting for them in the driveway hardly five hours later. When Terrance complained about the coffee maker burning his coffee, there was a new replacement the next day.  
  
“I know what you’re doing,”  
  
Tony, who had been tinkering with the washing machine that Roberta hated, whirled around. He looked like a kid who had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.  
  
“What?” Tony questioned, trying for nonchalance and failing miserably.  
  
“You’re trying to break my washing machine,”  
  
“No?”  
  
Roberta raised an eyebrow and Tony looked at the ground for a moment.  
  
“It keeps eating socks,” he grumbled.  
  
“So that means you can break it and then arrange for a new one to show up within a matter of hours?”  
  
For a moment she thought he was going to deny everything. But instead he deflated and rubbed the back of his neck.  
  
“You guys don’t deserve to have washing machines or refrigerator’s crap out on you,” he said at last.  
  
“Why don’t you and me have a talk on the porch,” Roberta suggested.  
  
They sat on the porch swing as they talked. Roberta kept trying to get the real reason of why he was always buying new things out of Tony, and finally, near dusk, the truth came out. Roberta never would have guessed that Tony didn’t think too highly of himself, that the gifts were his only way to show other people he was worth something. Roberta told him it was stupid and that even if he had no money, she would still love him like one of her own because he was a good person, and a very good friend to her son. When she was finished speaking, she kissed the kids forehead and left him on the porch swing to think about everything she said.  
  
She was not surprised when the next day there was a new washer and drying in her laundry room.  
  
–  
  
Tony left halfway through summer to spend time in the Mansion with Jarvis and his parents. He didn’t see much of his father, but he did spend a lot of time with his mother and Jarvis, and that’s all he really cared about.  
  
A few days before school began, Tony was with the Rhodes family one more time. Rhodey was being shipped off for the Air Force.  
  
The two hugged as tightly as they could for a long time. Neither of them quite ready so say goodbye to each other.  
  
“Don’t worry, Tones, I’ll be back soon,” Rhodes promised as they parted.  
  
“I got a promise to keep, after all,”  
  
Tony let out a shaky laugh at that and rolled his eyes.  
  
“Yea, in 20 years,”  
  
But Rhodey just smiled at him and squeezed his shoulder.  
  
“I’ll see you soon, honey bear,”  
  
posted 17 second


	4. One Last Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a graduation, some deaths, a kidnapping, and saving the world.

Tony graduated MIT at the age of 19. Rhodes was there, decked out in his military blues. To his surprise, he was not the only one there for Tony. He had been looking for a place to sit when Jarvis approached him, Director Carter on his arm.  
  
“Sir,” Jarvis greeted.  
  
“Hey J, ma’am,” Peggy smiled at him and looped her arm through his.  
  
“We’re sitting a little way off,” she told him.  
  
Rhodes had no other option but to follow them to the third row from the front of the bleachers. He recognized Howard and Maria Stark almost immediately. Rhodes didn’t really want to sit near Howard, not after the stories Tony had told, or from the phone calls Rhodes had overheard. Thankfully, Howard was sitting at the far end, Maria was next to him. Jarvis sat next to Maria, Peggy took a seat next to Jarvis, which left Rhodes sitting next to the Director of SHIELD at his best friend's graduation.  
  
“Tony’s going to be so pleased you’re here,”  
  
“I told him I wasn’t going to miss it,” Rhodes replied  
  
Rhodes still remembered his own graduation. Tony had been sitting with the Rhodes family. They had all cheered entirely too loudly and Tony had brought a sign. Tony never could do anything in moderation.  
  
Peggy leaned over to murmur something to Jarvis, Rhodes didn’t hear what she said, but he did hear Jarvis’s response.  
  
“Yes, Miss Carter,”  
  
“I’ve been married for over 20 years and he still insists on calling me, Miss Carter,” Peggy directed the words to Rhodes.  
  
“He still calls me sir,”  
  
“I think he does it to spite us,” but Peggy’s voice was fond.  
  
They all fell silent as the graduates marched out onto the field. Peggy, Jarvis, and Rhodes immediately leaned forward to try and catch sight of Tony. It wasn’t hard to find the kid, he was one of the few people whose grad cap was decorated. And because it was Tony it didn’t say “PhD bound”, instead, Tony’s cap said “Hotter by 3 degrees”. Because of course Tony wasn’t going to sail through MIT without getting an abhorrent amount of degrees in the process.  
  
“Is he really getting three degrees?” Peggy questioned.  
  
“Yes ma’am, I believe the sir said Computer Engineering, Mechanical and Robotics Engineering, and Physics,” Jarvis replied, he was unable to hide the pride in his voice.  
  
“Oh! What a lamb,”  
  
Rhodey found the ceremony to be unremarkable really, he heard the speeches the year before when he graduated. He cared about one thing, he just wanted to watch Tony walk across the stage.  
  
Tony’s row stood up and Jarvis grabbed a video camera. Rhodes felt beyond proud of his best friend. Names were called, people walked across the stage, Rhodes didn’t care about any of them.  
  
“Anthony Edward Stark,”  
  
Jarvis, Peggy, and Rhodes were on their feet, cheering for the kid on stage. Rhodes even heard Maria cheering loudly, though she hadn’t stood from her seat. Rhodes took his seat again and watched Tony walk across the stage.  
  
It was another hour before the ceremony ended, and families of the graduates were allowed on the field. And due to mass confusion, it was another fifteen minutes before they found Tony.  
  
“Rhodes!”  
  
Rhodey turned just in time to catch an armful of a very excited Tony Stark. Rhodes was almost knocked on his ass.  
  
“Tones holy shit!  
  
“Gum drop I didn’t know you were coming!”  
  
Tony’s smile was breathtaking. His entire face was bright and excited. He looked like a kid who was going to take over the damn world. Actually, he was a kid who could take over the damn world.  
  
“I wasn’t going to miss your graduation!”  
  
“Oh, Ducky I’m so proud of you!” Tony turned to Peggy.  
  
“Aunt Peggy!”  
  
There was a lot of talking and babbling. Rhodes watched as his best friend talked with Director Carter, Jarvis, and Maria. Any words exchanged between him and Howard were tense and short.  
  
\--  
  
Rhodes flung the door to his house open, more than ready to yell at the dipshit who woke him up at 1 in the morning. But he froze when he saw the person standing there.  
  
“Tones!” the anger quickly melted away.  
  
Tony Stark look devastated. His face was pale, his eyes seemed too big for his face, they were tinged red, and his eyes were slightly puffy.  
  
“Tones?” his friend sagged forward and Rhodey easily caught him.  
  
“Hey, hey” Rhodes ushered his friend inside and into the living room.  
  
They sat on the couch. But still Tony didn’t say a word, he just stared off into the distance, and still leaned heavily against his friend. Rhodey just held his friend. It was nearly half an hour before Tony came back to life. He abruptly pulled away from Rhodes and scrubbed his hands down his face.  
  
“Can I change into something else?”  
  
For the first time Rhodes noticed that Tony was in a fancy suit. Rhodey nodded and Tony pushed himself off the couch and headed for Rhodey’s room. The other man sat back against the couch and turned the TV on. It took him all of five minutes to realize what had happened. Howard and Maria Stark had been killed in a car accident five hours earlier.  
  
When Tony came back into the living room he was in Rhodey’s old MIT sweater and a pair of sweatpants. He flopped down on the couch. Rhodes quickly changed the channel to some dumbass SyFy movie.  
  
“The cornerer said she felt no pain,”  
  
“Tony…” he said quietly.  
  
“I’m so sorry,”  
  
“Yea,”  
  
Tony slid down on the couch, his head on Rhodey’s lap. Rhodes combed his fingers through Tony’s fluffy, messy hair. Tony grabbed one of Rhodey’s hands and just held it. There was an ache deep in his chest at seeing Tony like this. Usually when Tony was upset he would babble, and move, he would be doing something, but this, this quiet, devastated, touch-starved Tony was one of the worst things Rhodey had ever witnessed.  
  
The SyFy movie on the TV was one of the more pathetic ones. Rhodey really hadn’t been paying attention, but from what he could tell, the world was going to end in some dramatic way, and all the main characters were absolutely idiotic.  
  
Any other day and he and Tony would be shit talking the movie to high heaven. But this wasn’t any other day. So there was no shit talking. Just a devastated Tony, and Rhodey had no idea what to say or do to even help his friend.  
  
“Jarvis is going to tell Aunt Peggy,”  
  
_Oh god._  
  
Rhodey had been so concerned with Tony that he had all but forgotten how close Jarvis and Peggy were to the Stark family.  
  
“Will you come to the funeral?”  
  
“Anything you want, Tones,” Rhodey said quietly.  
  
“They were going to spend Christmas in Europe,”  
  
There was less than ten days till Christmas. No one should have to start off their Christmas holiday by finding out their parents died in a fucking car crash.  
  
“You should spend Christmas with us, Jeanette’s been asking about you,”  
  
“I think I’ll just spend it with Jarvis,”  
  
“Tones,” Rhodey protested  
  
“Thanks gumdrop, but I don’t want to ruin your holiday more than I already have,” Tony replied. Rhodey stopped threading his fingers through Tony’s hair and looked down at his friend.  
  
“You could never ruin my holiday,”  
  
Tony let out a scoff but otherwise didn’t move.  
  
“Really, Tones, you could show up here saying you murdered a man and I’d still be in a festive spirit,” Rhodey replied. There was a soft sound from Tony, and it took Rhodey longer than he cared to admit to figure out that the noise had been a small, quiet laugh. Rhodey marked that as an epic victory in his book.  
  
“You wanna stay here? Or try to get some sleep?”  
  
Tony hesitated for just a moment.  
  
“I’ll even let you cuddle me,” Rhodes added.  
  
“Please gumdrop you know you secretly want to be cuddled by me all the time,” Tony replied, he made an attempt to inject some snark into his voice, but it didn’t really pan out.  
  
It was times like these when Rhodey really loved those damn nicknames. And maybe Rhodes didn’t hate cuddling Tony as much as he let on.  
  
\--  
  
Tony woke up to someone’s fingers scrubbing gently at his scalp. He really fucking liked waking up like that. For a heartbeat he couldn’t remember what he did last night and who he took home for a one night stand. And then it all came rushing back to him. His parents were dead. The car had careened off the road and into a tree. Tony had identified the bodies. Then he went to Rhodey. Always Rhodey.  
  
_She felt no pain, Mr. Stark._ No thank god she hadn’t. She had played him a song on the piano less than twenty four hours before, and now she wasn’t there anymore. It had taken all of five seconds for Maria Stark to make the transition from alive, and beautiful, and kind, to death, meant to spent forever rotting six feet beneath the ground. There would be no more Maria Stark, no more gentle piano notes to rouse him from an alcohol induced sleep. No more mom.  
  
And Howard. Tony had barely been able to look at his father. Howard’s face had been partially bashed in from where it hit the steering wheel upon impact. He felt no pain either.  
  
Then Obie had been there too, and he’d been devastated, and kept calling Tony ‘my boy’, and Tony just couldn’t handle it. So he’d left. He wasn’t entirely aware where he was until Rhodey opened the door. For half a second his best friend had looked pissed, and then worried. Tony really had to work on that, Rhodes had enough to worry about without him fucking things up. But Rhodes had been good and hadn’t pushed Tony into talking, he’d just let Tony be stupidly emotional and raw, and had even gotten Tony to laugh.  
  
“I take it last night wasn’t some drug induced nightmare, then?” Tony’s voice was rough and scratchy.  
  
“I’m sorry, Tones,” Rhodey said quietly.  
  
“Yea,” because that’s all Tony could think of to say.  
  
For a second they stayed there, Rhodey rubbing at Tony’s scalp, and Tony trying damn hard to ignore the ache in his chest. And then Rhodes pulled away, he mumbled something about breakfast and left the room. And Tony was alone.  
  
Tony reached over to the bedside table where his phone was. He flicked through all the messages he had, most of them were from Obie, Tony didn’t care about those. He cared about the ones from Jarvis and Peggy. He felt a hard lump form in his throat as he read their messages. He tossed his phone on the bed. Maybe he could deal with those messages at a different time.  
  
“Tones! Coffee!”  
  
Getting out of bed might have been the hardest thing Tony ever had to do. It was too real. Too soon. He wasn’t ready to face his first morning without his parents, without his mom.  
  
When he reached the kitchen, he found a mug of coffee waiting for him on the counter, and Rhodes was making breakfast. Rhodey looked a little sleepy, he was wearing one of Tony’s old rock shirts that he would deny having stolen, he was humming some song that Tony didn’t recognize, then he looked over at Tony and smiled.  
  
Rhodes was fucking beautiful.  
  
“How you doing Tones?”  
  
“Just fine gumdrop,” Tony replied with forced casualty.  
  
Rhodey reached out to gently touch Tony’s arm, for half a second his fingers lingered there before he went back to making his omelet.  
  
“You don’t have to hide it from me,”  
  
For just a second Tony hated the fact that Rhodey knew him so well.  
  
\--  
  
The funeral had long since ended. Rhodey still stood next to Tony in front of Maria and Howard’s graves. Tony had been far too quiet. He didn’t make a speech, he didn’t talk unless someone spoke to him first, he didn’t even cry. But Rhodey knew how good Tony was at hiding his emotions, especially in public.  
  
“You didn’t have to stay, peaches,” Tony stated as the two walked away from the graves. Rhodes didn’t miss how Tony shot one last look over his left shoulder, to Maria’s grave.  
  
“Didn’t want to leave you, Tones, you’re my best friend,”  
  
Tony tried to pretend that didn’t sting. He was 98.5% sure he was in love with Rhodes, and he was 2.07% sure there would be any chance that Rhodes felt the same way, not favorable odds.  
  
\--  
  
Rhodey couldn’t think right. There was too much to think about, too much going on in his mind. The Humvee had flipped. God Tony was in that Humvee. Tony was gone. Kidnapped. Abducted. Taken. And nobody knew a goddamn thing about where he was, or who took him, or what they wanted.  
  
Rhodey’s best friend was missing. Tony was missing.  
  
\--  
  
It was weird, Rhodey realized, as the days wore on to weeks, that Tony wasn’t there. It was weird not being called in the middle of the night. Weird not looking at newspapers and seeings Tony’s name there because he’d been partying too much, or because SI had made some new advancement in weaponry. It was weird not having Tony.  
  
Rhodey didn’t like it. Once he might have hated being woken up in the middle of the night by Tony. But the longer he was missing, the more Rhodey ached to hear his phone ring, to see Tony’s picture light up the screen, to hear whatever Tony had to say.  
  
It was unlikely to find him alive. Rhodey had been told that for the past month and a half. It was the one thing he couldn’t bring himself to accept. If Tony was dead- Rhodes would know. He would. They had been friends for 20 goddamn years now. Tony was ingrained in him. If he was dead, then Rhodey would know somehow. Rhodey would give anything to get him back. Or, at the very least to see that contact picture flash across his screen one more time.  
  
\--  
  
There was an explosion, off in the distance. An explosion in the middle of a goddamn desert. Rhodey knew, he just knew, that it was because of Tony.  
  
Tony was alive. Tony made it out. Tony was coming home.  
  
_Tony… Tony… Tony..._  
  
\--  
  
Rhodes dropped to his knees in front of his best friend. He hadn’t seen Tony Stark in three months.  
  
“How was the fun-vee?”  
  
Tony smiled. Rhodey felt something warm slip down his cheeks.  
  
“Next time, you’re riding with me,”  
  
Because that was the only thing he could think of to say. Then Tony was in his arms and for the first time in the past three months Rhodey felt like everything was going to be ok.  
  
Rhodes finally stood, and pulled Tony with him. Medics swarmed between them and pulled Tony away.  
  
There was something large, and blue in the center of Tony’s chest. Something Rhodes knew hadn’t been there before the kidnapping.  
  
Tony looked back at Rhodes for just a second before he let himself get led away. Rhodey smiled weakly and watched him for a moment.  
  
_Oh god I love him._  
  
\--  
  
After explaining what happened in the caves of Afghanistan, Tony fell asleep. Just like in college, he fell asleep at Rhodey’s side, clinging to him like a damn octopus. Rhodes, of course, just let it happen. It helped ground him. Tony was alive. Tony was safe. Tony had a goddamn arc reactor in the middle of his chest to keep the shrapnel in his heart from killing him, but he was alive.  
  
He was alive.  
  
\--  
  
“I never got to say goodbye to my father. There's questions I would've asked him. I would've asked him how he felt about what his company did, if he was conflicted, if he ever had doubts. Or maybe he was every inch of man we remember from the newsreels. I saw young Americans killed by the very weapons I created to defend them and protect them. And I saw that I had become part of a system that is comfortable with zero accountability,”  
  
“Mr. Stark, what happened over there?” one of the reporters asked.  
  
“I had my eyes opened. I came to realize that I had more to offer this world than just making things that blow up. And that is why, effective immediately, I am shutting down the weapons manufacturing division of Stark Industries,”  
  
\--  
  
“Just stick to the script,”  
  
There was a moment when Tony’s big brown eyes met his. Rhodey’s brain flipped offline. The only thing that mattered at that was the way Tony was looking at him. Tony turned away from him to get to the podium, Rhodey’s brain kicked back into gear and he took a few steps back from the podium.  
  
_Had Tony always been so beautiful?_  
  
Rhodey knew what was going to happen before it did. Tony never could stick to a script. For a long moment Tony stared at the cards in his hand, and then at the reporter who accused him of not being a hero, then he set the cards down.  
  
“I am Iron Man,”  
  
\--  
  
Things weren’t the same after that.  
  
\--  
  
He couldn’t see anything except Tony flying into a fucking wormhole. Rhodey knew the suits weren’t capable of handling space. Tony was in deep space in a fucking tin can. Slowly but surely, the wormhole started to close.  
  
“No,”  
  
Rhodes wasn’t aware that he’d spoken. Tony was still in the wormhole. It couldn’t be closing. God not without Tony, please god let Tony come out of this alive. The wormhole shrank ever more. His heartbeat echoed one particular word.  
  
_Tony… Tony… Tony_  
  
Something red and gold fell through the sky. The wormhole closed.  
  
_He’s alive. He’s alive. He’s alive._  
  
He wasn’t slowing down.  
  
Rhodes turned to look at him CO, he would go AWOL if it meant getting to Tony, and making sure he was ok. But thankfully his CO nodded. Rhodey headed right to his War Machine suit. He’d been flying for all of two minutes when he noticed that he had a new voice message. He opened it up and almost grounded himself as soon as he heard the person’s voice.  
  
“Hey, peaches. Look I don’t got a lot of time but there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you that I never got around to saying, and I should have told you Rhodes. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me and I-”  
  
The message stopped abruptly. In his mind’s eye, Rhodey saw Tony fly up into the wormhole with a nuke on his back.  
  
He listened to the voicemail all the way to New York, trying to memorize the sound of his best friends voice as if that alone could sustain him. According to the locator system in the War Machine suit, Tony was at the Tower. Rhodes landed heavily on the landing pad and tore out of his suit.  
  
_Tony… Tony… Tony…_  
  
Then there he was, standing in the middle of the room with more than a few holographic schematics of the Tower surrounding him. In that second Rhodes could only think about that drunken evening in his dorm room 20 years ago.  
  
“Tones,”  
  
\--  
  
From the moment Tony woke up on the concrete he thought of only one thing. Rhodes. He meant to keep his promise, he did, but so many things got in the way. Tony got captured just before Rhodes turned 40, and then there was the palladium poisoning, and Rhodes had been furious with Tony about that whole thing, so Tony decided to give him a little bit of space. Then the mess with aliens happened, and Tony wasn’t going to waste another goddamn second without Rhodes at his side. He had a ring all ready to go, it had taken him all of 20 minutes to make. He’d started making plans on when, where, and how to propose to his best friend.  
  
“Tones,”  
  
There was only one person in the world who called him that. Tony turned to see Rhodey, looking terrified, and ecstatic, and worried all at the same time.  
  
_How has marriage never been an option until now?_  
  
Then they were hugging, and Rhodes was shaking because Tony had scared him, it would always be Tony’s fault.  
  
“I thought you weren’t going to do anymore stupid shit,” Rhodey’s voice was rough and so familiar, Tony didn’t feel at home until he heard that voice.  
  
“I wouldn’t call saving the world stupid, peaches,” Tony replied quietly.  
  
“You flew yourself into space in a tin can with a nuke on your back, that’s a little stupid,” Tony let out a quiet laugh.  
  
Rhodes stepped away from him and very easily dropped down on one knee with a ring box in his hand. Don’t Ask Don’t Tell had been repealed 2 years ago, and while being gay still wasn’t the best thing to be in the military, Rhodes would love to meet the person who took War Machine out of commission for marrying his best friend.  
  
“20 years ago we made a promise to each other, and I intend to keep that promise. You’re the best thing in my life, Tones,”  
  
Tony stared at him for a long moment. He didn’t look panicky or scared, he looked thoughtful.  
  
“I’m not doing this for the tax benefits,”  
  
That got a laugh out of Tony, the engineer finally moved, he slipped his hand in his pocket and pulled out a small ring box. Rhodes couldn’t keep the smile off his face.  
  
“You just had to beat me to it, didn’t you honey bear?”  
  
With his free hand, he plucked up the ring from Rhodey’s box and slipped it on his finger. Rhodey pushed off his knee and Tony casually offered out his own ring box. Rhodes took it and flipped the top open. Clearly Tony had made the ring by hand. There were imprints from the pads of Tony’s fingers. It felt oddly heavy in his palm, or at least heavier than the ring he’d got for Tony. Rhodey slipped it onto his finger.  
  
“I had a whole thing planned, platypus, I’m talking fireworks and a grand speech no less than 10 minutes long, it would have reduced you to a mess of tears,”  
  
“Of course it would, Tones,”  
  
“A mess of manly, manly tears,”  
  
“Tony, shut up,”  
  
And just to ensure that Tony would actually shut his mouth, Rhodey leaned forward to kiss him.

**Author's Note:**

> originally posted to my tumblr!  
> [ here ](http://www.anthonystahrk.tumblr.com/)  
> also points to you if you can find all of the Hamilton references in this fic!!


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